Plate 301. 

 ROSE, ANTOTNE DUCIIEU. 



Nothing can be iiioro disappointinu; tliaii writing about nt'w 

 Hoses, except it be growing tliem ; for year after year the most 

 flaming descriptions are given of about seventy or eighty 

 varieties, all of which, were we to believe the raisers, are 

 better than any that have gone before; while at tin' cud of tlie 

 season we find, perhaps, that if three or four out of the whole 

 number are worth retaining, it is quite as many as we are 

 warranted in doing. Seeing, even, is not believing, here ; for 

 although a Rose may look well and be handsome, yet there 

 may be some pecidiarity in its growtli whicli prevents it from 

 holding a place in our gardens ; such, for instance, as Naj)oUo)i 

 III., which, beautiful as it was when we save it at Vitry last 

 year, and as figured by Mr. x\ndrews, has too delicate a consti- 

 tution ever to make it a general favourite. 



When visiting the Kose gardens of France last season, we 

 expressed an opinion that the Rose which we now figure, 

 Antoine Diicher, would prove to be the best Rose of the season, 

 and we are still inclined to this opinion. Certainly, so far as 

 we have been enabled to see, the tAvo Tea Roses, Madame 

 Mnrqoftin, Bouton iTOr, and the Hybrid Perpetuals, Horace 

 Vernet, Antoine Bucher, Mademoiselle Anne Wood, and Madame 

 Biml (perhaps), are likely to prove those best worth retaining. 



We have seen only a few of those of tlie jjrcsent year, and 

 can, therefore, hardly venture to say nnuh ; but as the Rose 

 growers have had the opixn-tunity of a continuous exhibition at 

 the "Exposition TTniversclle," we may conclude, 1 thiidc, tliat 

 those which have obtained prizes there are likelj- to be good, 

 so that we may hope that Prince Humbert and Ducliesse d'Aosfe, 

 raised by our friend M. ^[argottin, at IJourg-la-Reine, and 



